Wednesday, March 19, 2014

What Is Global Tea Hut?

Much more than a monthly magazine on Cha Dao—Global Tea Hut is a growing community of tea lovers in 30+ countries, connected through the spirit of the Leaf.

Tea & Tao Magazine

Global Tea Hut is a full-color magazine, featuring in-depth articles on tea wisdom, tea science, tea processing, tea brewing, tea history and Cha Dao. It's produced entirely by volunteers. It's completely free from advertisers and endorsements. And it's filled with a love for Tea that far surpasses what you'll see in any other magazine!Each and every month includes visits to tea and teaware producers, articles and tea info translated from Chinese, spiritual articles on Cha Dao and coverage of topics rarely touched in the West. Plus, it has full-color photography of tea farms, rare teas, tea ceremonies, handmade teaware and more. As membership increases, we plan to travel more, covering tea stories in Korea, Japan, China as well as Taiwan. Every issue contains a "Teawayfarer" section, introducing a Global Tea Hut member to the rest of the community, center news, upcoming events and other ways to connect. We want to share all of this with the world, so all our past issues are available for free on our site!

Sustainable Tea

A central part of our mission is to promote sustainable tea around the world. Each month, we mail out sustainably grown teas that were produced without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides or other agro-chemicals. Several times a year, we feature teas that were harvested from wild or old-growth tea trees. And while we usually mail teas that were just harvested (such as White Puerh in spring and Bai Hao Oolong in summer), we sometimes send out aged teas, too (like 1970s Taiwanese Oolong and 1990s Shou Puerh). Our teas are mailed in a tea tin that has been lined with rice paper. The tins protect the tea from being crushed. The rice paper is traditional, holding in the aroma and preventing the tea from touching metal. The samples tend to be ten to fifteen grams (sometimes more depending on the tea), which is plenty for a long, large tea session or several smaller sessions.

Gifts with Love

The Global Tea Hut envelopes we mail around the world are made even more special by gifts from tea lovers to tea lovers. They're different every month, and each month's gift is a surprise. In the past, we've sent out all sorts of things that tea lovers adore, including tea chocolates, cloths for the tea table, tea utensils, tea poetry booklets, small works of tea-inspired art, rattan teapot rests, wooden tea utensils, aloeswood incense for tea sessions, and extra tea samples. Some of the gifts are made by members themselves, furthering our connection to each other through this global community! We hope to share more tea inspired art, music, writing, poetry and crafts in the coming months. Let us know if there is anything you'd like to give to the community, or receive as a gift from Taiwan.

Global Community

Tea has an incredible ability to connect people, and that ability is clearly seen in the Global Tea Hut community. Global Tea Hut is a growing global community of tea drinkers who connect via monthly subscriber profiles in the magazine, our Facebook page and web forum, visits to our tea center in Taiwan and local community groups all over the world. In addition to being central to our thriving tea center in Taiwan, Global Tea Hut plays roles in tea communities in over 30 countries around the world. There are regular Global Tea Hut events held in Los Angeles, Moscow, Barcelona, Estonia, Australia, France and elsewhere. And these aren't just meet-up groups for people to chat about tea; they're communities where people find tea sisters and brothers to last a lifetime, laugh until their bellies hurt, bond over the shared experience of deep tea sessions, and (of course) drink awesome tea.

When you subscribe to Global Tea Hut, you aren't just getting a cool envelope each month and connecting to local tea communities. You're also supporting a volunteer-run tea center in Taiwan, where guests from around the world can visit and learn about tea free of charge.